The quickest way to fail at pricing is also the most common: Just send them the offer.
Sure, it’s what they asked for, but it’s also:
– Based on guesswork without proper context
– Optimistically priced (best-case scenario or close)
– Inversely proportional to your desperation level
These factors don’t just lower your price—they completely ignore the client’s perspective.
And if the offer gets rejected, it will be for reasons that only exist in that same perspective you ignored:
– Some admin dumps your number into a spreadsheet and discards it for not being the cheapest
– Unable to evaluate your expertise, they reduce your entire offer to a number they can easily compare: your price
Unlike a car wash (“clean” or “not clean”), our services aren’t binary. “How much for consulting?” is meaningless without context.
So stop just sending offers. Instead, create conversation by:
1. Pointing out a “landmine” in their request
2. Suggesting you might deliver results with a smaller scope if you understand their true goals
Either they’ll engage meaningfully or reveal they’re just price shopping before you waste time making an offer. Either way, you win.
You CAN refuse to reduce your expertise to a context-less number. This will scare away price shoppers – but unless your price is rock bottom, you wouldn’t have won them anyway. You can’t lose a client you never had.